Elections 2018

Opinion

Report Exposes Kabul Municipality Fuel Scam

A Kabul computer vendor explains how many government employees embezzle money from their departments and institutions.

The acting mayor of Kabul Abdullah Habibzai on Sunday said his administration has detected new methods of corruption by staff using Kabul municipality’s cars.

According to him, GPS units were placed in some vehicles to determine the distances traveled by staff. However, the drivers reportedly removed the devices and placed them in other vehicles so as add extra miles – which in turn meant they could claim for the extra fuel.

In this report, TOLOnews journalist Tamim Hamid speaks to a computer salesman in Kabul, who – speaking on condition of anonymity – has explained how some government employees and staff at private companies hack systems to steal fuel.

One example cited was the “fake” invoices he is asked to write out.

“They (corrupt people) come and say that we prefer to buy the products from you, (computer seller), but they ask me to write the invoice out for 5,000, 10,000 or 20,000 AFs more than the actual price,” he said.

Kabul municipality has however referred 200 people to legal and judicial institutions over their suspected involvement in corruption in the past few months.

“We placed GPS (units) in our vehicles following allegations of the theft of fuel so as to control their movements, but they found another way to deceive us; they have taken out the GPS (units) and placed it somewhere else, for instance in another car, while their own car was parked; but the GPS (units) showed the cars were moving,” said acting mayor of Kabul Abdullah Habibzai.

But, critics say government’s failure to take solid action against corruption has been one of the core reasons for the high levels of corruption in Afghanistan.

“The weakness of the monitoring institutions can be one of the important factors which is preventing us from combating corruption in the lower and higher and medium levels,” said Naser Taimoori, researcher of Integrity Watch Afghanistan (IWA).

Report Exposes Kabul Municipality Fuel Scam

A Kabul computer vendor explains how many government employees embezzle money from their departments and institutions.

The acting mayor of Kabul Abdullah Habibzai on Sunday said his administration has detected new methods of corruption by staff using Kabul municipality’s cars.

According to him, GPS units were placed in some vehicles to determine the distances traveled by staff. However, the drivers reportedly removed the devices and placed them in other vehicles so as add extra miles – which in turn meant they could claim for the extra fuel.

In this report, TOLOnews journalist Tamim Hamid speaks to a computer salesman in Kabul, who – speaking on condition of anonymity – has explained how some government employees and staff at private companies hack systems to steal fuel.

One example cited was the “fake” invoices he is asked to write out.

“They (corrupt people) come and say that we prefer to buy the products from you, (computer seller), but they ask me to write the invoice out for 5,000, 10,000 or 20,000 AFs more than the actual price,” he said.

Kabul municipality has however referred 200 people to legal and judicial institutions over their suspected involvement in corruption in the past few months.

“We placed GPS (units) in our vehicles following allegations of the theft of fuel so as to control their movements, but they found another way to deceive us; they have taken out the GPS (units) and placed it somewhere else, for instance in another car, while their own car was parked; but the GPS (units) showed the cars were moving,” said acting mayor of Kabul Abdullah Habibzai.

But, critics say government’s failure to take solid action against corruption has been one of the core reasons for the high levels of corruption in Afghanistan.

“The weakness of the monitoring institutions can be one of the important factors which is preventing us from combating corruption in the lower and higher and medium levels,” said Naser Taimoori, researcher of Integrity Watch Afghanistan (IWA).